Moments after shaking the hand of a latter-day Apostle of the Lord, 13-year-old Elisa dos Santos Nascimento burst into tears.
Moments after shaking the hand of an Apostle, three teenage girls stood at their front-row seats in the chapel in two visibly opposite displays of emotions from the unexpected encounter. Two squealed with delight while wrapped in a jumping embrace of joy, with the third standing beside them, silently weeping for the powerful and individual confirmation she had felt.
And moments after merely touching the hand of an Apostle, 13-year-old Kaleo Ponder witnessed to his father how his evening of disappointment had changed to one of testimony and connection.
The three are memorable moments for me as well, as I covered member meetings with Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during his recent ministry assignment to Recife and São Paulo, Brazil.
Such moments are not unique to a specific Apostle, to the ages of those greeted nor to the locations where they happen. Similar leader-member interactions are constantly occurring across the globe, with a variety of ensuing impacts and impressions.
Accompanied by her mother, Elisa was among members briefly greeting Elder Andersen when he said he would try to shake hands with a few — and ended up meeting many — following a March 5 stake conference in Recife. Her small frame and the braces bolstering frail legs hinted of her lifelong challenges with cerebral palsy.
Said Elisa — a member of the Recife Brazil Stake’s Agua Fria Ward — of meeting an Apostle: “I felt very happy, as if I had shaken the hand of the Savior.”
Then came a flood of tears, as she explained how the moment would strengthen her as she faced an upcoming surgery. Adverse reactions to medications and anesthesia in previous medical procedures had sent her into fits of extreme panic, with Elisa thinking she was going to die.
“Soon I will have surgery for my legs,” she said, struggling to speak between sobs. “I will pray with all my heart that I can stay alive here on this earth, because I know I have a purpose here, and I will do all I can to help others make covenants.”
Her mother, Wanderléia Josefa dos Santos Nascimento, spoke of her confirmations while listening to the conference messages from Elder Andersen and Sister Kathy Andersen, his wife — to teach her children to hear the Savior through daily reading of the Book of Mormon and to continue to teach her family about the principle of tithing.
She related how her 8-year-old son, Estevão, had paid tithing recently on money received from his grandmother and how he agreed to follow his mother’s encouragement to help work with his father and pay tithing on his earnings. And she had to clarify to him that tithing was returning 10 percent to the Lord and not paying more — or even all — as her son had expected.
“In addition to this,” she said of her learnings of the day, “the emphasis came one more time to my mind of a promise from one year ago — that if my family remains faithful, in the right time we would see our Savior, and that we should always be in the place to renew our covenants.”
I didn’t speak with the three young women who met Elder Andersen following a March 10 youth devotional in São Paulo — I just watched their faces and expressions for several minutes as they relished their experience in different ways.
And I didn’t speak with Kaleo, but I did with his father. President Thiago de Souza Ponder of the São Paulo Brazil Camp Limpo Stake related his son’s excitement following the same devotional held at the stake center adjacent to the São Paulo Brazil Temple.
“Dad, Dad, I touched the hand of Elder Andersen,” Kaleo told him.
At first, I thought President Ponder meant to say, as he spoke not in his native Brazilian Portuguese but in English, for my benefit, that his son had shaken Elder Andersen’s hand. Then I saw photos of youth reaching out to the Apostle.
When his father asked how that made him feel, he answered, “I feel great after being disappointed.” Kaleo had invited friends to attend the devotional who didn’t make it. Still, he felt a witness of the Spirit as Elder Andersen entered the chapel and again as he reached out to the Apostle after the devotional had concluded.
Because of various circumstances, Church leaders are not always able to greet many — if any — Latter-day Saints attending conference meetings and devotionals.
And the reactions of members don’t have to be emotional ones — but they certainly can be uplifting, inspiring and confirming.
They become moments never to be forgotten.
Including for me, as an occasional witness to such moments.
